FIVE
HIS HEAD WAS HIDDEN BETWEEN two chairs, but it was clear to Hazel that the big Cree man stretched out on the waiting room floor was unconscious. He must have fallen or collapsed, and it wouldn’t have been a first. The hospital had drunkenness to contend with from time to time, but more often patients presented themselves at the clinic only once they were gravely ill. In the past, she interpreted this eleventh-hour custom as distrust. Medical services from southern doctors were still a novelty in the community and used only as a last resort, but it occurred to her now that responding to illness or injury by going to the hospital might not yet be habit.
The boy at the man’s side was the only other person in the waiting room and he had his back to her. He hadn’t even lifted his head at
